Scar Tissue
by Monroe-Militia
Summary: Bass notices Charlie's M scar and is not impressed. She wonders why he even cares. Charloe.
1. Chapter 1

After they finished fighting off a couple of patriots, Charlie turned to go keep walking, but was immediately stopped by a swift grab to her wrist that pulled her back.

"Come on, we have to go find Miles," Charlie said sternly as she glared back in confusion at Bass.

Her gaze dropped back down to her arm while his grasp on her arm remained firm, digging into her flesh a little.

"Bass stop, we've got to go."

He still remained frozen in place, staring down at her wrist for a few more long moments before he cursed under his breath and flung her arm away as if he could no longer stand to look at it, let alone hold it.

"What the hell is going on with you?" Charlie demanded.

"Your wrist," he responded in an angry tone.

"What?"

"Your wrist! _Look at it!_"

Charlie flinched back as his voice rose to a shout. Once Bass noticed her reaction, he ran a hand through his hair as he turned away from her and began to pace.

Charlie looked down at her wrist and finally realized what his problem was, the scar on her wrist from when the Monroe Militia's 'M' had been branded onto her flesh.

"Oh."

She had grown used to the scar and rarely thought about it or gave her wrist a second glance. She hadn't thought about it much, but it surprised her that Monroe hadn't noticed it before.

"When did you get that?" Bass questioned, seeming to have regained some amount of control over his emotions "_Where_ did you get that?"

"Does it matter?" Charlie challenged.

"Does it matter?" Bass repeated in a tone of disbelief. "Are you joking, Charlie?"

"No. I'm not." She insisted, anger becoming evident in her tone. "Why do you even care?"

"Never mind, let's just go," Bass replied, deflecting the question. "Like you said, we need to go find Miles."

Before she had the chance to say anything else, he'd already walked past her and was moving fast in an attempt to get away from that conversation and to Miles.

Charlie followed behind him, a little slower as she wondered to herself what had provoked such a strong reaction to her scar. She didn't think that Bass was capable of caring about anyone other than himself and Miles...

Could she be wrong?

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! This story is dedicated to tumblr's stairwaytorays because it probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for her suggesting it as a ficlet (and might not be multi-chapter if it weren't for someone anonymously requesting more).  
**


	2. Chapter 2

All day, Charlie hadn't been able to stop thinking about what had happened when Bass had seen her scar. Neither of them had brought it up again, but Charlie couldn't keep it off of her mind and she wondered if Bass was still thinking about it as well.

When Charlie had a minute alone with Bass, she decided to try again to confront him about his reaction.

"Seriously, why does it bother you so much? ...My scar?" She questioned.

"Why _doesn't_ it bother you?" He challenged.

"It did," she responded. "At first... But that wore off quickly and I got used to it. Now, it's a part of me. I hardly even notice it... And when I do, it's a reminder of the past and all that I've overcome."

Bass seemed to consider her words for a few moments before he told her, "No... I don't believe you... That is not some good thing that you're glad you have. That's scar tissue from where _my name_ got branded on you. That mark is there because of _my_ mistakes!"

"You're right. If I had a choice, I would get rid of it," Charlie admitted angrily. "But I don't. And it really doesn't bother me that much. So why the hell does it bother you? Hundreds of other people have these scars too, maybe even thousands. Why does it matter if I have one?"

"We need to keep moving," Bass said, intentionally ignoring her question and practically cutting her question short as he turned to walk away. "We'd better go find your mom and Miles."

"No." Charlie told him in a tone so insistent that it shocked even her as she grabbed his sleeve to stop him from leaving.

"Let go of me," Bass demanded, ripping his arm away so that his sleeve escaped her hold. "I'm not having this conversation."

"Why not?" Charlie called after him as he began to walk away. "Why is it _so_ impossible for you to admit that you care about anyone other than yourself and Miles?"

"Because!" Bass shouted as he stopped in his tracks.

Charlie flinched back from the sudden outburst, but by the time that he had turned back around to face her, she had managed to get her expression under control.

"-Because everyone that I have _ever_ cared about besides Miles has died! ...Even before the blackout. And Miles has come close to dying on me enough times already." Bass finished passionately.

Charlie felt a pang of sympathy, but also a pang of anger at that.

"You think that I don't know about having people that I care about die? ...I've lost a lot of people too, Bass!" Charlie argued back. "And you know what I've learned? That people are going to die. And whether you admit to yourself that you care about them or not, it is still going to hurt like hell. The only difference is that you'll end up regretting being such a major ass afterwards if you don't admit it."

With that, Charlie was done with the conversation and angrily turned to walk away.

Several dragged out seconds passed before she heard Bass's voice come from behind her.

"Maybe I can't admit that I care about you because it would mean that I'm even more sick and twisted than I already know that I am."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Charlie asked in an offended tone as she turned back around to face him.

"It means that by some sick joke, or maybe because I'm just a sadistic bastard who loves torturing himself, I've somehow developed feelings for _you_ of all people," he responded angrily. "After everything that I've done to your family... Even though your mom would love to murder me, I just had to fall for _you_."

Bass turned away and ran a hand through his hair in exasperation before looking back at her.

"Maybe I can't admit that I care about you because that would be admitting that I have feelings for a girl that I used to help babysit before the blackout," Bass continued. "I remember when you used to laugh for five minutes straight whenever I called you Charlotte instead of Charlie. And now you're all that I can think about. How sick is that?"

Charlie stood in a shocked silence for several long seconds. What could she really say to that? How could she argue with his logic, even if she wanted to? Besides, she was still stuck on the part where he apparently used to babysit her with Miles when she was little.

Bass half-turned as if he was going to storm away before he looked back at her like he was trying to make a decision.

He muttered something incoherent under his breath before he began to walk towards her with an air of urgency. If she knew how he felt and how messed up he truly was, then he may as well go all in.

Charlie didn't move to stop him as he closed the distance in between them. She still didn't resist as his hands moved to either side of her face and he brought his lips to hers in a desperate kiss.

In fact, against all reason, Charlie's first instinct was to kiss back.

Their lips hadn't been separated for more than a second or two when they heard Rachel's voice in the distance.

"Charlie, come on!"

Charlie continued to stare into Bass's eyes for a few seconds longer, studying the vulnerable look that she was so unused to seeing from him, before her mom's voice sounded again. This time her voice came from even closer.

"Charlie, where are you?"

Charlie hesitated for a moment longer before she tore her gaze from his by looking down and stepped away from him.

"We're coming!" Charlie shouted back to her mother.

She turned back to look at Bass once more in wonder before she headed towards where her mother's voice had been coming from.

Bass quickly collected himself before he began to follow after her. He didn't know how this one girl managed to get under his skin so much.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! I hope that you guys are liking it so far and thanks for reading. :)  
**


	3. Chapter 3

"Where were you?" Rachel questioned once her daughter came into sight.

"Nowhere," Charlie responded as Bass came into Rachel's sight a few steps behind Charlie. "I was just stretching my legs while we give the horses a break."

With that Charlie walked straight past her mother and towards the wagon without a single glance back. Bass smirked a little at the look of annoyance on Rachel's face as he walked past her.

* * *

As they travelled, Charlie was uncharacteristically quiet as she stared over the side of the wagon off into the distance.

"You're starting to freak me out a little, Charlie," Miles finally commented. "I'm not sure if you've blinked once in the last hour."

She was sitting up front with Miles and quickly turned to glare at him. In the back of the wagon Bass smirked as Aaron slept and Rachel aggressively avoided even looking in Bass's direction or acknowledging his presence.

"Okay, I'm taking that as you don't want to talk," Miles responded in an exaggerated tone. "Someone's in a bad mood."

"I'm not in a bad mood," Charlie told him in a tone that seemed to contradict her words.

She wasn't in a bad mood though… She just also wasn't in an overly chatty mood either. She was confused. She hadn't been expecting Bass to kiss her and now she wasn't sure how she felt.

Okay, that wasn't exactly true either. She was pretty sure of how she felt after a kiss like that, but she hadn't even considered the idea of having something with Bass until the possibility slapped her in the face. Now she wasn't sure what she was going to do. It's not like a relationship with Sebastian Monroe would be easy, especially with her mom and Miles around.

Charlie had been so busy trying to prepare herself for fighting with the Patriots that she had never really stopped to prepare herself for anything else or to look around and pay attention. If she had there would have had to have been at least a few warning signs, wouldn't there?

Her mind was plenty focused on the possibility now. It seemed to be overanalyzing things enough to try and make up for all of the lost time when she hadn't noticed what was apparently right there.

* * *

When they stopped for the night, Charlie's mind was still obsessing over it and replaying everything over and over again.

As she lay on the hard ground, trying to shut her thoughts off, she heard the sound of Aaron snoring a few feet away. She looked over to where her mom and Miles were lying together to find that they too had fallen asleep. Their steady breathing and relaxed faces gave that much away.

She didn't understand how they could sleep. Sure, it had been over an hour since they had set up camp for the night, but still... Charlie was wide awake. It wasn't fair.

The sound of rustling leaves put Charlie on full alert and she shot straight up, already reaching for her weapon. She relaxed a little and brought her arm away from her knife when she saw that it was just Bass rolling over.

She lay back down to try and get some sleep, but her heart was still beating wildly in her chest from that scare.

…If Bass was rolling over that probably meant that he was awake. And it wasn't like she was going to be able to fall asleep any time soon anyways… This might be the only chance that she'd have to talk to him alone for a while…

Charlie sat back up, quietly rose to her feet, and began to move. As she walked, she dodged the sleeping bodies on her way over to Bass.

Once she reached him, she sat down cross-legged next to where he was laying and, as quietly as she could, asked, "Are you awake?"

"Barely," he murmured almost inaudibly.

"I need to talk to you," she told him.

Bass let out a loud groan as his eyes still remained shut.

"You always need to talk to me," he complained. "Can't it wait until morning? I'm tired, Charlie."

"I guess it can wait," she agreed reluctantly.

A lazy smile formed on his lips as he mumbled, "Good."

He was expecting to hear her footsteps walking away, so when he still hadn't a few seconds later he opened one eye to peek over at her.

She was lying beside him on top of the blanket that he had lain over the grass and judging by the look on her face she was about thirty seconds tops from trying to start another conversation.

"What?" He questioned.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean 'what'?"

"You're making a face like you're about to burst if you don't say something," he pointed out.

He still looked at least half-asleep as his hooded eyelids blinked several times a second, struggling to stay open.

"You said to wait until morning," Charlie commented.

"I know," he responded. "But you don't look like you're going to make it that long. And I'm tired. So just say whatever it is now instead of waiting until I'm about to fall asleep again and you can't hold it back."

"Why me?" She asked him.

"What?" He asked, rubbing at one eye with his hand.

His brain wasn't quite awake enough to follow her train of thought. After a second or two he seemed to catch up and a light-bulb went off in his head.

"I don't know," he commented as he half sat up, leaning back on his elbows. "It's not like I planned on falling for you."

"You made that pretty clear," she pointed out.

"You know, for someone who didn't talk for like twelve hours straight, you sure have a lot to say now," he retorted. "I mean I get that you were speechless after the kiss, but I think that's a new record."

Charlie let out a small laugh as she shoved him roughly in the shoulder.

"Or maybe I don't even talk that much and you're just terrible at communicating," she challenged.

"Probably that one," he admitted with an innocent shrug, almost reasonably awake now. "I'm not like you, Charlie. Not anymore. I used to be able to talk about feelings and all that… Probably most with Miles, but that was before he left... You get kind of bad at trusting people or letting them in when you're best friend leaves you and basically everyone you trusted turns on you."

"I don't know," Charlie told him as a teasing smile began to tug at her lips. "You're not doing _completely_ terrible at it right now."

She could see that Bass was clearly still tired, so she decided to let him sleep as she rolled to lie on her other side.

Bass moved closer to her and when she didn't move away or protest to that, he wrapped an arm over her waist. His hand landed over her right arm.

A minute or two passed as they lay in a comfortable silence while Bass traced lazy patterns along her flesh before his fingers found themselves over her scar tissue. He paused for a moment before he resumed his movements, hesitantly tracing over it with his thumb.

"I'm sorry, Charlie," he murmured by her ear as he let his hand fall away from her wrist and onto the blanket instead.

She didn't say anything in response. Instead she just moved her hand over to his, intertwining their fingers.

* * *

A/N: Please read and review! :) A huge thanks goes out to LemonSupreme, perfectmanhatten, BassCharlie, JM2788, decadenceofmysoul, Dee809, Wolf9lucky, bruz, marissa, neverthereb4, IceonFire7, Lady Krystalyn, Laura, and the two anonymous guests for reviewing the last chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

Bass woke up to someone kicking him roughly in the leg.

"What?" He grumbled out in an annoyed tone as he felt Charlie stir beside him.

He was still too half-asleep to realize that there was something wrong with being found all cuddled up to her.

After a few seconds of silence, Bass looked up to find Miles standing over them with the sun shining blindingly behind him.

"What do you want, Miles?" Bass groaned as he brought a hand up to block the sun from his eyes.

He was definitely sleep-deprived from Charlie's middle of the night talk the night before.

"You two might want to separate before Rachel or Aaron wake up," Miles told them as Charlie rolled onto her back to look up at him. He smirked a little as he added, "Unless you're interested in getting murdered today."

"What? You're not going to kill me?" Bass questioned with the slightest smirk as he and Charlie sat up.

"I think I've already tried enough times," Miles responded.

"It's really just starting to get embarrassing for you," Charlie added with a smirk.

"Exactly."

* * *

As they travelled for the day, Charlie and Bass weren't sitting together on the wagon or chatting or anything, but they did exchange quite a few lingering glances.

When the wagon stopped for a break, Bass went to go stretch his legs and Charlie opted to go with him.

As soon as they were a safe distance away, she turned and grabbed the front of his shirt to pull him towards her until their lips were pressed together.

As they kissed, one of her hands remained on his chest while her other arm wrapped around his neck, her hand sliding down the back of his shirt.

"You know, when you followed me I was expecting you to have some new question that you've been waiting all day to ask," he told her when he came up for air for a moment. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Well now that you mention it..." Charlie said with a teasing grin.

She cracked a laugh at the look on his face.

"I'm kidding," she told him before pressing her lips back against his.

* * *

When they walked back over to the wagon together a few minutes later, Miles shot them both a smug look. He wanted them to know that he could plainly see that they had run off for some alone time together.

Charlie shot him a glare in response as she climbed back up onto the wagon.

* * *

When they stopped for the night, Rachel instantly walked over to Miles and told him, "I need to talk to you."

Miles could tell by her tone that she meant actually talking as he followed her off a little ways away into the line of trees surrounding their camp for the night.

* * *

"I'm not afraid of my mom, if you aren't," Charlie commented to Bass as she watched Aaron setting up his bed for the night.

While it may have been a bit of an exaggeration for Bass to say that he wasn't at all afraid of Rachel, since she was a bit of a wild cannon, he wasn't going to admit that to Charlie.

"You're worth facing the wrath of a Matheson for," he told her. "Even the wrath of your mom."

* * *

Charlie set her blanket down with Bass's and then they laid down together. He lay on his back as she snuggled up to his side.

Less than ten seconds passed before Aaron questioned, "What are you doing, Charlie?"

"Go to bed, Aaron," she responded without opening her eyes.

"Really? You expect me to just go to sleep and pretend that you aren't cuddled up to Monroe of all people?" Aaron asked her in a tone of disbelief.

"You can pretend or not," she told him. "Just let me get some sleep."

She nuzzled her face further into Bass's shoulder as if she could hide herself from the conversation.

"Now you know how I felt last night when I was trying to sleep and you thought it was the perfect time for a serious conversation," Bass mumbled out to her.

"Last night?" Aaron asked, still completely flabbergasted by the entire situation. "How long has whatever this is been going on?"

Charlie decided to try a new strategy of ignoring Aaron with the hope that he would just give up for the night.

It didn't work out very well for her.

"Okay, am I going insane? Was I drugged up and I'm hallucinating right now? What are you thinking, Charlie?" Aaron continued. "Rachel's going to kill you both. You do realize that, don't you?"

"I was planning on being asleep by the time that she got back," Bass grumbled out angrily. "And if you don't shut your mouth pretty soon, I'm going to come over there and rip your vocal chords out and then feed them to you."

Charlie shifted her arm so that she could elbow Bass hard in the gut.

"Hey, what was that for?" He complained.

"You can't just threaten Aaron like that," she told him in an annoyed tone.

"Okay, sorry," he muttered defensively.

"Better," Charlie said, smiling into the fabric of his shirt.

"Okay, hold on. Did Monroe just apologize for something?" Aaron questioned loudly. "What did you do to him, Charlie? ...Someone had better start giving me answers now or-"

Charlie cut him off as she sat up to glare at him and warned him, "Seriously, Aaron. Just stop talking. I'm trying to sleep and if you don't shut up, I'm going to have to get up to come over there and kick your ass."

Aaron raised his hands in a sign of innocence as he silently decided to let Rachel handle whatever it was that was going on here once she got back.

"Fine," he gave in. "I'll stop talking."

"Good," Charlie said as she set her head back down on Bass.

"You can't just threaten Aaron like that, Charlie," Bass taunted, using her own words against her.

"You shut up too."

* * *

"There's something going on between Charlie and Monroe, isn't there?" Rachel questioned in a pained tone.

She'd seen the way that they had been exchanging glances all day. And she wasn't thrilled by the way that they had been disappearing together whenever the wagon stopped for a few minutes during the last two days.

Miles shrugged, avoiding giving her an answer that was too direct.

"Tell me the truth, Miles," Rachel demanded. "I'm not blind; I know there's something going on. You know Bass better than anyone. I'm sure you figured it out before I did, so how long? How long has this, whatever this is, been going on for?"

"I don't think she's known about it for long, but he's had feelings for her for a while," Miles admitted. "But I think I probably figured that out before he did."

"I'm going to kill him," Rachel insisted definitively.

"No, you're not," Miles said in a tone of exasperation.

"Why not?" She demanded.

"Because you know what that would do to Charlie after everything," Miles pointed out and then his voice came out a lot more mumbled as he added, "And you know what that would do to me too."

"So then what do you expect me to do?" Rachel questioned. "I can't just sit here and do nothing about it."

"This might just pass after a few days," Miles told her, more for her benefit than because he really believed it. "But if you yell at her non-stop and get all pissed off about them being together, then you're just going to push her closer to him. Don't you remember how well that worked when Gene tried to keep you away from me?"

"Fine," Rachel gave in. "I won't do anything for now, but I'm certainly not going to be supporting her decision to be with him."

* * *

When Charlie heard footsteps coming, she looked up to see Miles and her mom walking together.

Rachel looked over at where Charlie was laying with her head resting on Monroe and forced herself to turn her gaze away before she could react.

Once Rachel had walked past with a blank look on her face, Miles shot his niece a quick wink that she responded to with a grin.

Aaron began to question whether he had really lost his mind or not as he watched Rachel lay down next to Miles without so much as acknowleding the fact that her daughter was snuggled up to Monroe.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Also a huge thanks goes out to JM2788, LemonSupreme, samanthalininger, neverthereb4, IceonFire7, Daedalos, and driver picks the music for reviewing last chapter :)**


	5. Chapter 5

Charlie woke up the next morning and shifted a little to get comfortable, snuggling up a little closer to Bass.

"Charlie?" Bass asked, his voice quiet in case she was really still asleep.

Charlie opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him, finding that his lips were just inches away from hers.

"Yeah?" She responded.

"I can't feel my arm," he told her.

"Sorry," Charlie murmured out as she moved off of where she had been lying on his arm all night to lie a little farther away. "Better?"

Bass nodded as he felt a cold sensation run down his still tingling arm.

He grinned a little to himself as he looked over at her. After all that he had done wrong, what the hell had he done to deserve Charlie? He wasn't sure, but he didn't plan on losing her the way he had everything else.

"What?" Charlie asked him with a small smile of her own when she noticed the look on his face.

"Nothing," he responded with a shake of his head.

Charlie didn't seem to believe him, but she didn't get the chance to point that out before he was kissing her.

She brought a hand up to pull him closer and he rolled so that his body was hovering over hers as they continued to kiss.

"I'm awake," Miles pointed out loudly after a few minutes had passed and it was clear that they weren't going to stop on their own. "So if you two could keep it PG-13 over there, that would be great."

Bass brought his lips away from Charlie's and let out a laugh as he turned to look over his shoulder at Miles.

"What does PG-13 mean?" Charlie asked in a confused tone as she half sat up with Bass still partially on top of her laughing. "Is that some kind of dorky code that you two made up?"

"No, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that it's some kind of dorky code for anyone who's ever seen a movie," Miles retorted with a smug smirk as Bass finally rolled off of Charlie.

"I've seen movies," Charlie defended herself.

"I know," Miles admitted. "I've seen Toy Story more times than I'd like to admit thanks to you."

"I still don't know what PG-13 means though," she insisted, not enjoying being the only one in the conversation that didn't know what was going on.

"It means keep your clothes on," Miles explained. As Charlie immediately shot a glare in his direction, Miles had to smirk as he added, "I'm already scarred enough from walking in on Bass."

"That was your fault," Bass immediately defended himself. "There was an obvious warning and you just ignored it. Besides, I'm definitely more scarred than you are from that time in high school-"

"Bass. Shut up." Miles threatened in his gruffest tone.

"You remember that time, don't you?" Bass continued, seeming quite amused with himself. "When I made the mistake of walking into your room unannounced right when you were-"

"Fine, you're more scarred. Are you happy? Now shut up or I _will _kill you," Miles threatened.

"No you won't," Bass pointed out smugly.

Aaron woke up then. He sat up and was less than thrilled to find Monroe smirking over at Miles from where he was lying next to Charlie.

"Great," he muttered out sarcastically. "So it wasn't just a nightmare... Either I've lost my mind or everyone else has."

"Oh, good," Bass grumbled just as sarcastically. "Stay Puft's awake."

Charlie turned and glared at him for that.

"What?" Bass complained. "It's not like I'm threatening him... Currently."

"That's great," Aaron responded sarcastically. "That's a real nice boyfriend you've got there Charlie... I liked Neville's kid a hell of a lot better."

"I think we all liked Nipples better," Miles commented.

Charlie rolled her eyes at that as she remembered just how much they had disapproved of her trusting Jason. But of course they would claim to have liked him better as soon as she was with someone else...

And okay, maybe that someone else was Monroe, but things were more than a little complicated now that he had decided to help fight the Patriots and joined the good side. Besides, the world was already messed up enough, so she figured that if she could find someone who was on the right side of things now and who she had feelings for, whether those feelings were logical or not, that it was the best that she could really hope for in their current reality.

"He's saved both of your asses, hasn't he?" Charlie challenged Aaron and her uncle. "So neither of you are really in any position to preach about how bad he is."

Rachel, who had woken up at the sound of Aaron's loud voice, forced herself to keep her mouth shut as she glared over at Bass, who currently looked like Christmas had come early for him.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A giant thanks goes out to LemonSupreme, dixie326, 00sonrisa00, samanthalininger, JM2788, driver picks the music, BassCharlie, Dee809, theresatmunoz, Estel la Rodeuse, and the anonymous guest for being awesome and reviewing last chapter! :)  
**


	6. Chapter 6

"Rachel, please tell me that you're not actually okay with whatever the hell is going on between your daughter and Monroe," Aaron begged. "I feel like I'm going out of my freaking mind here. I mean you get that Charlie and Bass is just wrong in so many ways, right? And I don't mean wrong like the way you and Miles used to be. I mean _wrong_. Like fundamentally wrong and can only get worse wrong. It'd be like Mary Poppins dating Darth Vader wrong, _okay_?"

"Do you seriously think that I don't know that?" Rachel asked him in an exasperated tone.

"Oh, thank god," Aaron said, letting out a sigh of relief.

So he wasn't the only one who realized how insane things had gotten lately.

"Charlie being with him is more than wrong," Rachel agreed. "But Miles seems to think that freaking out about it is only going to make things worse. And if Charlie's anything like me, then he's probably right."

"So then, what?" Aaron questioned. "Are we just supposed to turn the other way and pretend that she isn't sleeping cuddled up to a former evil mastermind? I mean I can deal with having the guy around now. I can even trust him to help us fight the Patriots. But I can't trust him with this. Not with Charlie."

"I know," Rachel agreed. "But for now we just have to try and ignore it and hope it blows over... Or that he gets himself killed."

Rachel wasn't sure whether she really meant that last part or not. She couldn't see herself ever shedding a tear over Sebastian Monroe's death, but Miles was right. She knew that Miles was right just like she knew that he would never forgive her if she had something to do with Bass's death.

If Bass died, it would tear Miles apart. And now it would probably tear Charlie apart too, especially with all of the death that she had seen at such a young age. So could Rachel really honestly tell herself that she wanted Bass dead?

* * *

When they stopped for the night again, no one commented on Charlie's choice of sleeping arrangements. Even Aaron didn't say a word about it.

"What?" Bass asked as Charlie sat half-reclined, looking thoughtfully over at him. "You're not planning on pulling an Edward Cullen and staying up all night staring at me while I sleep, are you?"

Charlie's brow crinkled in confusion, "Edward Cullen?"

"He's a fictional vampire stalker that gets all obsessed with some teenage girl," Bass told her, but she didn't look any less confused at that. "It was the plot of some lame book series... You know what, forget it."

"Did he eat her in the end?" Charlie questioned.

"No," Bass told her.

"Did he get killed?"

"No."

"So then how did she get away from him?" Charlie asked.

"She didn't. They got married."

"Why would a vampire stalk its prey and then marry it?" She questioned. "And wouldn't someone try to fight this monster that showed up and started drinking the town dry and kidnapping innocent girls and forcing them to be its bride?"

"He didn't drink people," Bass tried to explain. "And he didn't kidnap her, she wanted to marry him."

"If he didn't drink people, then how do you know he was a vampire?" Charlie questioned.

"He drank animal blood and was over a hundred years old," Bass told her. "And I'm done trying to explain the plot of Twilight to you, okay? I don't understand why people read it or made it into movies, so I sure as hell don't know how to explain it to you."

"You're the one who brought it up," Charlie pointed out. "And no, I'm not planning on staring at you while you sleep."

"Then lay down already," he told her.

Charlie considered for a moment longer before deciding on using his chest as a pillow so that he might not lose circulation in his arm while they slept this time.

Half a minute passed before Bass asked, "Umm, Charlie?"

"What?" She asked him.

"Your hair won't get the hell out of my mouth," Bass responded.

"Sorry," Charlie told him, shifting a little. "...Is your arm going to be numb in the morning if I lay here?"

"It's fine," he told her.

Several minutes passed before Bass's arm began to prickle a little and he reluctantly admitted, "Actually, it's starting to fall asleep again."

Charlie moved again, off of his arm, only to feel a rock digging into her side.

She sat up and tossed the rock aside before lying back down. She shifted again, unsuccessfully trying to get comfy. She achieved little success.

"Stop moving," Bass grumbled.

Every time that she moved, he would start thinking about being uncomfortable and would discover something new that bothered him about the way that he was lying and then he'd have to move too.

"It was not this difficult to get comfortable the first time," Charlie muttered.

"That's because I was already half-asleep anyways," Bass insisted.

"I wasn't," Charlie pointed out.

"Fine, come here," Bass mumbled as he rolled onto his side.

After a few seconds of shifting around, they were lying together on their sides, spooning the way that they had the first night, with Bass's arm draped loosely over her waist.

"Better?" She questioned.

"Yeah, now I can hold you still so that you don't keep shifting around every two seconds," he muttered. If he was being perfectly honest, he was pretty damn comfy. "We should have tried this ten minutes ago."

"If we'd tried this ten minutes ago, I would have had a rock digging in my side and ended up moving anyways."

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A huge thanks goes out to driver picks the music, LemonSupreme, ThreeMagpies, Isabella Poulous, JM2788, 4ever-write, BassCharlie, and Hollywoodlove09 for reviewing last chapter! :)  
**


	7. Chapter 7

Bass woke up the next morning to the warmth of Charlie against his chest and decided that it was definitely something that he would be okay with getting used to... Although one thing that he certainly _would_ prefer was not having to sleep a few feet away from Stay Puft and Miles and Rachel. It was a bit of a pain in the ass having almost constant supervision.

He wrapped his arm a little bit tighter around Charlie to pull her closer to him. As he did so, she stirred a little.

Charlie rolled over in his hold to face him with tired eyes as she remained cocooned in his arms and shifted even closer to him. Bass could feel her chest against his as she looked up at him with a sleepy smile. For a second, he could almost forget about the others surrounding them and how they could wake up at any moment... _Almost_.

He ducked his head down to kiss her on the forehead, but she quickly maneuvered it so that he was kissing her lips instead. He didn't complain.

* * *

Rachel felt sick when she woke up and spotted her daughter lying snuggled up to Monroe and kissing him, but she resisted the urge to start a fight as she rolled over so that she was facing away from them and back towards Miles. A few seconds passed and then she nudged him gently in the side.

When Miles woke up and saw what Rachel's problem was, he seemed more concerned with the lack of attention that he was getting than by what was going on a few feet away.

* * *

When Charlie finally pulled her lips back away from Bass's, she wasn't thrilled to see that her mom and Miles had started their own little make-out session over where they were laying.

It was one thing being okay with your uncle and mother being together and even encouraging them to be happy together, it was a whole other thing to have to watch them making out like there was no one else around.

She frowned and after a few minutes she finally gave in and loudly commented, "Okay, point taken. You two can stop now."

It still took a bit more time than Charlie thought was really necessary, but the pair did finally separate eventually.

* * *

Miles thought that he was getting a pretty good deal out of things. Charlie still seemed to be happy, Bass hadn't done anything too horrible lately, and instead of choosing to argue verbally Rachel was choosing to give him extra attention. Things certainly weren't perfect, but they were better than they had been in a long time. He just hoped that things would last that way and Rachel wouldn't end up getting pushed over the edge by Bass and Charlie's whatever it was.

* * *

Aaron, who had woken up at some point during the dual make-out session, was not thrilled with the current situation of things.

He murmured something to himself about being a fifth wheel on the Matheson make-out wagon as he rose to his feet. He seemed to think that it was time to leave for the morning and Rachel quickly followed suit in packing up to set out for the day.

Miles got up to help Rachel as Bass frowned to himself. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just Miles, but having Rachel along with them was less than pleasant. Besides, he was just waiting for the moment that she'd snap and he'd end up with a gun pointed at his head. He could hope all he wanted that Miles really had her under control, but he knew Rachel. There was no way that anyone could ever keep her in control. She always ended up doing what she wanted in the end.

* * *

As Charlie rose to her feet, Bass remained firmly planted and his attention shifted over to her. He was too busy watching as she stretched, arching her back and stretching her arms out while her shirt rode up a little to reveal even more of her stomach than usual. Her stomach wasn't what he was finding the most distracting though.

At first Charlie didn't notice what he was doing until she turned to see why he hadn't gotten up yet, only to find that his attention was focused solely on her and what she was doing.

"Get up," she told him, although her tone wasn't harsh.

He didn't seem very sorry about being caught staring as he rose to his feet with the slightest smile still plastered on his lips.

She rolled her eyes and shoved him a little in the shoulder. He staggered back a step, less from the force that she'd shoved him with and more because of the way that he'd started laughing.

"What?" He questioned innocently.

"You know what," she responded, although her smirk revealed that she wasn't too upset about it.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A giant thanks goes out to RevolutionReader, Wolf9lucky, CountryGirl90, LemonSupreme, perfectmanhattan, Loveforthestory, ambrown1022, Daniella T, driver picks the music, and Dee809 for being awesome and reviewing last chapter! :)  
**


	8. Chapter 8

Bass was thrilled when they stopped for the night at an abandoned building they had found. That meant that there would at least be a hint of privacy. There were no beds, but it still beat lying on the hard, rock-covered ground for one more night.

Miles knew that Rachel was going to be on the borderline of completely losing it if Charlie and Bass snuck off, so he decided to take preventative measures by convincing her to sleep in a separate room with him. He wasn't sure that it would necessarily work, but he figured that it was worth a try at least.

* * *

Once Aaron had set himself up in one room and Miles and Rachel had set themselves up in another, Bass looked over to Charlie, waiting for her to take the lead.

She turned and leered at him before grabbing her stuff up and heading down the hallway.

He waited for a second, letting her go a few steps ahead of him as he enjoyed the view, before following her.

She stopped and dropped her things to the floor when she reached a room that she thought was an adequate distance from everyone else and then turned back to look at him.

He shut the door behind them and turned back around to find her laying a blanket down in order to create a makeshift bed.

As she smiled over at him, he stared over at her and felt a longing take over him. He wasn't sure how far she was willing to take things, so for a moment he hesitated just inside the doorway.

He made his mind up then and pulled his shirt off as he began to walk further into the room. He was hoping it would lead to something, but either way he wasn't going to wear a shirt if they were sleeping indoors anyways.

It turned out to be more than a little successful when she followed suit by removing hers as well.

* * *

"I've been trying to be okay with it and waiting for this whole thing to blow over, but it doesn't seem like it's going to," Rachel confided to Miles. "Or if it is, not soon enough."

"So what if it doesn't blow over?" Miles asked, knowing full well the risk he was making with that question.

"I already worry enough about Charlie without her being with Monroe," she responded. "And when we're facing down the Patriots, I don't want to have to worry about her being distracted or risking her life to try to save Monroe of all people."

She also didn't like that she had to worry about Monroe's well-being and what losing him would do to Charlie and Miles, but she didn't dare mention that to him.

"She can't just change how she feels, Rachel," he pointed out. "You can't choose who you care and worry about. You should know that by now. How many times would you have chosen to feel nothing for me if you could have?"

Rachel understood the point he was making, but it still didn't make her feel any better about the situation.

"You know what happens to the people he cares about," she pointed out. "And I'm not letting that happen to Charlie."

Miles couldn't argue with that. He knew that he was one of the few people Bass cared about who were still alive, but it wasn't like the world was really a safe place for Charlie either way.

"Our lives are dangerous enough," he commented quietly. "If they're happy, does it really matter if our suicidal odds are a little bit worse?"

She frowned at that, but didn't argue with him.

"Look, I know you think he's bad for her," Miles insisted. "But she's good for him. He's better with her."

Rachel didn't think that was overly fair for Charlie, although her daughter didn't seem to be too upset about her current situation.

* * *

Charlie woke up next to Bass early the next morning. He was still asleep and she watched him for a moment. He looked different asleep, without all of the tension and anger.

She brought her gaze away from his and moved to get up. She figured that she should get dressed before someone else came looking to wake them up.

Bass's eyes were still closed when he woke up, but he moved to shift towards Charlie, only to find the spot next to him empty. He opened his eyes and sat up to find her standing there, less than half-dressed.

It took her a second to notice that he was awake too, but, by the time she had pulled her shirt on over her head, she could feel his eyes lingering on her body.

She turned back to look at him, still not fully-clothed, and a small smile formed on her lips when his eyes met hers for only a split second before travelling lower again.

"You should get dressed," she told him.

He was less than eager to get up and throw clothes on, but he knew that she was right. They needed to keep going and get back to Willoughby to try to figure out what the hell the Patriots were up to, which meant that they didn't have time to stay there alone, whether they wanted to or not.

She paused, with one pant-leg half on, in order to admire the view as he pushed the blanket aside and moved to his feet.

He didn't comment on that, but a smirk formed on his lips as soon as his back was to her as he reached for some clothes.

"Where did you get that scar from?" She asked him as he was buttoning up his jeans.

He turned back to face her, to find her fully dressed again, as he asked her, "Which one?"

After all that he'd been through, he had more than a few. Some of them were a lot less subtle than others and, while some were fresh, others had been there for so long he couldn't remember what it had been like not having them.

She walked over and stopped behind him as she reached out with a hand to trace a faint pink line towards the bottom of his left shoulder blade. "This one."

Out of all the scars he had, he was amazed she'd managed to pick out one that he'd had since long before the blackout.

He looked back over at her over his shoulder as he responded, "Miles pushed me out of a tree. We were ten."

His mom had been pissed about it at the time and tried to keep him from playing with Miles, despite the fact that Bass had covered for Miles and insisted that he had just fallen. After all, Miles hadn't actually intended for Bass to fall out of the tree and had been horrified when he had. The ban on hanging out with Miles had been lifted fairly quickly though and Miles had spent a week trying to make it up to him.

"I can't believe he pushed you out of a tree," she responded as she walked back around him to face his front.

In a way Charlie couldn't believe it, yet at the same time she thought that it did sound like the kind of thing that Miles might do. She was able to form a crystal-clear mental image of a ten year-old Miles laughing and shoving a ten year-old Bass who went stumbling straight out of a tree.

"It wasn't that tall of a tree," he responded. "Otherwise I probably would have broken my arm."

"I broke my arm once," Charlie commented. "Back in Sylvania Estates. But it wasn't from falling out of a tree."

"What was it from?" He asked her.

"I got into a fight with a guy older and bigger than me," she told him.

"What? You didn't know how to fight yet?" Bass asked her.

"I made it out okay," she responded before a small smile formed on her lips. "I might have had a broken arm, but you should have seen him walking around missing his two front teeth."

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A huge thanks goes out to LemonSupreme, driver picks the music, ToTheSkyAndBack, JM2788, and RomanceFanatic for reviewing last chapter! :)  
**


	9. Chapter 9

The wagon had been stopped for a few minutes when it happened. Aaron had wandered off to find an isolated location he could use as a washroom as Charlie and Bass had headed off in the opposite direction to stretch their legs and get a little bit of time away from the rest of the group. Rachel and Miles had stayed back, watching the wagon as they stood up and stretched a little.

One second, Charlie was slowing her pace down to try to let Bass catch up to her as she looked back over her shoulder to try to see what had slowed him down. Her head didn't get to turn back all the way before she spotted a figure that had stepped out from the trees a few feet away. His gun was trained on her.

A moment later, she was on the ground with a splitting headache. She wasn't entirely sure of how she had gotten there, but she didn't get the chance to figure it out before her vision went black.

* * *

"Did you hear that?" Miles asked as a gunshot went off a little ways away.

Rachel nodded her head before adding, "It came from the way Charlie went."

"Well then hopefully it was her or Bass's gun," Miles commented as his hand instinctively moved to his weapon. "Wait here, I'll go find out what's going on."

She would have argued with being left behind if it weren't for the fact that the wagon was where Charlie knew to come back to.

* * *

"What do you mean they're gone?" Rachel asked as all colour drained from her face.

"I mean they aren't there," Miles insisted. "I looked. They're gone, Rachel. There's a puddle of blood and then a couple of drops and that's it. No sign of either of them. No trail to follow. At least not one that I could see. What we could really use is Charlie's tracking to try and find a trail. Only we can't ask her because they're gone."

"Well, how much blood was there?" Aaron asked with a frown. He definitely was not sure that he wanted to know.

"I don't know," Miles admitted. "Enough to be concerned. I'd say from the amount that whoever it is that got shot might be alright, but I don't know. The blood trail just stops, so I don't know how much they were really bleeding."

"But they're going to be okay right?" Aaron demanded in a worried tone. "I mean, Charlie and Monroe know how to take care of themselves. So they're going to be fine? Right?"

"I don't know, Aaron!" Miles snapped at him angrily. "I don't have all the answers!"

Aaron mumbled something under his breath, but Rachel remained silent. She still was pale looking.

One of her worst fears was coming true and she didn't even have the slightest idea of what she could do to stop it.

"It's got to be the Patriots, right?" She asked finally.

"It could be," Miles responded. "Or it could be someone else altogether. Or one of their lapdogs like Titus. I don't know."

The not knowing was what frustrated Miles the most. At least if he knew who took them, or where, he would have something to work with. He needed to act. That was how he kept a level-head while everything was falling apart around them. But when he had no idea of where to begin it made his stress levels run even higher.

"They couldn't have gotten too far, right?" Aaron questioned. "They don't have that much of a head-start on us. We could still find them."

"We have no idea which direction they went in," Miles pointed out. "We could end up running in the wrong direction, away from them."

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A huge thanks goes out to RevolutionReader, LemonSupreme, and Wolf9lucky for reviewing last chapter! :)  
**


	10. Chapter 10

Charlie woke up to find herself lying somewhere unfamiliar. She was lying on the dirt-covered ground, yet there were walls around her. She was trapped in a small, funny-smelling room.

She quickly moved to grab her weapon, but of course it was gone.

She got up and tried the door. She hadn't been holding out much hope of it being unlocked, yet she still found herself disappointed when it wouldn't budge.

Charlie turned back to look over at where Bass was sitting with a look of defeat. That was when she saw his wound and realized how she had ended up on the ground before. He'd pushed her out of the way. That's how he'd ended up with the bullet lodged in him.

"Do you really think I didn't try the door?" He asked her in an amused tone.

"How long was I out?" She questioned as she headed towards him.

"Not long," he responded, shrugging with the shoulder he hadn't been shot in.

She pushed his hand, which had been applying pressure to his bad shoulder with a ripped off piece of his shirt, away from his wound to inspect it for herself.

"It's just a shoulder-hit," he pointed out. "It's not even bleeding that much."

"Yeah, well, I doubt whoever locked us in here is planning on providing medical care," she pointed out as she tore another strip off of his shirt to use as a tourniquet.

Bass let out a weak laugh and she looked up at his face in confusion.

"What about this is funny?" She asked him.

"We're finally getting some real privacy," he pointed out.

"This isn't exactly ideal alone time," she countered.

"Exactly," he told her. "That's why I'm laughing."

* * *

A few minutes passed before Charlie heard the door opening behind her and quickly turned her body to face that direction. By the time she'd turned around, the door was already closing again.

She heard it lock as she stared at what had been dropped into the room.

"There's the medical supplies you weren't expecting to get," Bass pointed out. "Looks like you're going to have to play nurse."

"You could sound a little less happy about that when there's a bullet I'm going to have to try and pull out of you," she retorted before moving to grab the supplies.

"I've been shot before," he responded. "In much more painful places and had much less attractive nurses. I'm just trying to make the best out of the situation."

"Sorry I couldn't get a costume to complete your messed up fantasy," she told him with an unsympathetic smile.

* * *

Charlie at least felt a little better about their situation once he was stitched up. She hadn't done a perfect job, but she figured it would do. She was more concerned about it getting infected from their less than sanitary conditions than she was about the stitches breaking open.

As she sat back next to him against the hard wall, she pointed out, "This doesn't make any sense. What was the point of shooting at us if they were just going to give us medical supplies?"

"They shot at you," he pointed out. "I got in the way. I'm the one they're trying to keep alive."

"For what?" She questioned. "Do you think it's another bounty hunter working for the Patriots?"

"That's my best guess," he responded.

"Then why are we locked up here?" She asked him.

"Maybe he's waiting for the Patriots to come pay their bounty," he responded. "...Or maybe it's just some nut job that wants to keep us as trophies."

Charlie toyed with the knife in her hands. It wasn't much, it was small and had only been given to them so that she could dig the bullet out of him, but at least it was something. She felt better with a weapon in her hand, even one so feeble.

"Hopefully the others will find us before we have to find out what they want," she responded.

"If they want us alive, they'll have to bring us food and water sometime," he pointed out as he looked down at the knife in her hands, trying to calculate its usefulness.

"Assuming that they're keeping us here long enough that we'll need it to survive," she contradicted.

"I think there's three of them left," he told her. "There were four. They brought us here in a wagon, but one of them didn't get off. He kept going, probably to go tell the Patriots they captured Monroe. That means there's probably three, maybe four. We could take them."

"With you down an arm and a butter knife as a weapon?" She retorted.

"Do you have a better plan?" He challenged.

"No," she admitted unhappily. "So that's the plan? Blindly attack when they open the door again? If they even do? The door wasn't exactly open for long last time. I didn't even get a look at him before it was closed again."

"So we throw the knife as soon as the door's open," Bass told her as if it was the obvious response.

"Do you know how to throw a knife?" She asked him.

She was sure that, even if he was able to, he wouldn't be able to do it with only his left arm fully functional.

"I was hoping you would," he responded. "It can't be that hard, can it?"

"With my knife, maybe. But how am I supposed to throw a dull butter knife so that it gets stuck in him?" She asked. "It's more likely to bounce off, or just hit him with the handle, and then we lose our only weapon."

"Just hope you get a lucky shot, I guess."

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A huge thanks goes out to RevolutionReader and LemonSupreme for reviewing last chapter! :)  
**


	11. Chapter 11

What felt like it must have been several days passed and Charlie's stomach was grumbling loudly by the time that the door finally did open. The knife was on the ground next to her and the door only opened partially, but they had moved to sit at the optimum angle, in case the door did open.

She took a deep breath and quickly snatched the knife up off of the ground and tossed it towards the man standing in the doorway.

It hit him sideways, with the back of the knife hitting him before it bounced off to the ground.

The strategy had backfired, but she moved quickly to try to keep them from losing their one chance at getting out regardless. At least the knife had caught the guy off-guard and distracted him as he looked down to see what had hit him.

Bass seemed to have the same idea as her, since he charged straight at the guy and shoved him back against the door. Charlie took that opportunity to dart past the pair to search for a better weapon.

She raced down the hall, only to find herself in the middle of a room where the other two men Bass had seen were sitting.

* * *

Bass wasn't up to his usual level of fighting with his injury, but it still didn't take long before he'd knocked the guy out. He figured that was good enough and decided to keep moving. Besides, he remembered how annoyed Charlie had gotten when he'd wanted to kill the last bounty hunter they'd run into.

He headed down the hall until he found Charlie, who had been doing a decent job of holding her own up until that moment. But just as he entered the room, her gaze shifted to him and she let her guard down for just the slightest second.

Still, it was long enough that one of the men she was trying to hold off managed to shove her stumbling backwards. That wouldn't have been such a big deal if there hadn't been a staircase only a few feet back from where she'd been standing. She went falling back down the stairs and Bass let out a guttural growl at that.

That made the men notice he was there. Bass charged forward and grabbed onto one of the men, prepared for a fight. Meanwhile, the other went running down the stairs after Charlie.

Bass hissed out in pain as his opponent took advantage of his wound, pressing down hard onto it.

That pissed him off even more as he kneed the man hard in the gut, sending him doubling over.

* * *

Charlie's landing was less than graceful and more than a little painful, but she didn't have time to worry about that.

As one of their captors began to head down the stairs towards her, she quickly looked around her for something she could use to defend herself.

* * *

Bass finished off his opponent, less mercifully that time, before heading towards the stairs to try to help Charlie and make sure that she was okay.

He found her sitting up with a pained expression next to the body of the bounty hunter she'd stabbed.

"Looks like you found a better knife," Bass commented as he looked from the body to the rest of the room. There were a variety of different hunting knives spread throughout the basement. "You alright?"

He knelt down closer to her to try to figure out what she'd injured. It was clear that she was a little banged up, but he wasn't sure of what exactly was keeping her on the ground.

"I'm fine," she responded determinedly, although something in her expression wasn't entirely convincing. "I just landed at a bad angle. Hurt my ankle, but it's fine."

Her foot had gotten stuck on the bottom step as the rest of her body had flung backwards and now there was a sharp pain shooting through her left ankle that was preventing her from being able to stand up on her own.

He still looked doubtful, so she added, "I can still walk. I just need help up."

She wasn't entirely confident in what she was saying, but they didn't have the luxury of waiting for either of them to heal. She had to walk, so she was going to, whether it hurt or not.

He extended his left arm and she grabbed it to pull herself up with. When she did she had to wince and bite down on her lip to keep herself from making any pained noises as her weight went onto her bad ankle.

"I don't think you're walking like this," he commented as she lifted her foot up off the ground to try to relieve some of her pain.

"I have to," she responded desperately. "We're not staying here."

"Here, at least put some of the weight on me," he told her as he wrapped one of her arms over him so that she was leaning against his good shoulder.

It was a little slow, but they managed to get halfway up the stairs before Charlie couldn't disguise her pain anymore and he came to a screeching halt.

As he shot her a look of concern, she leaned back against the wall and told him stubbornly, "I just need to stop for a second. I'll be fine."

They managed to get the rest of the way up the stairs like that before Bass stopped moving once again. It was clear that she was in a lot of pain and they were way too slow-moving like that.

"Why are we stopping?" Charlie asked him, although her ankle was relieved that it was getting a small break.

"You can't walk on that. Come on, I'll carry you," he told her.

"Don't be stupid, you'll tear your stitches open," she insisted.

"I'll be fine," he argued. "You're not walking on a broken ankle the whole way back. It took a couple hours to get here by wagon and we're stuck on foot."

Charlie shot him a pointed look as she told him. "You know I hate this idea, right?"

"Well, it's better than yours," he retorted.

She pressed her hand against the wall to balance herself as he moved to pick her up.

She took a sharp intake of breath and buried her face in his neck as he lifted her, with one hand under her knees and the other supporting her back.

"Sorry," he told her.

She brought her head away from his neck and looked up as she told him, "It's not as bad now. Just the lifting was bad."

He knew that she was still hurting, but he thought that she was at least telling the truth about it being a little better. He just hoped that they'd make it back to the wagon and Rachel soon.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Another giant thanks goes out to LemonSupreme, RevolutionReader, and driver picks the music for reviewing last chapter! :)  
**


	12. Chapter 12

The lack of food and drink in the days before only made things worse as they began to walk. At least it wasn't too hot out though.

Bass stopped and gently set Charlie down next to the stream they'd found. Now, they at least had water to go along with the hunting knife he had nabbed from the basement.

They drank and took a break, which was shorter than he would have preferred, before he walked back over to pick her up again.

She pushed his arm back and stopped him as she pointed out, "You're bleeding again."

"I know," he told her. "It's not that bad though. Could be worse."

He moved once again to try to pick her up, but she stopped him again, this time by trying to push the sleeve of what was left of his shirt up to look at his wound.

He dodged her movements, not wanting her to look.

"You ripped your stitches open," she pointed out. "And it might be infected."

"All the more reason to try to get back before night," he told her. "Come on, we've got to keep moving. Let me pick you up. Alright?"

"Fine," she gave in unhappily.

He lifted her up, much slower to try to avoid a repeat of what had happened last time, before beginning to walk again.

* * *

"So then what are we going to do?" Aaron asked.

"I don't know," Miles responded irritably.

They'd asked around at what little they could find in the surrounding areas, but no one admitted to having seen anything suspicious or anyone resembling Charlie or Bass.

They had no leads and the best idea Miles had was just waiting back where they had gotten separated as he tried to think of an actual idea that might help.

"We've been sitting here for hours," Aaron pointed out.

"Hey, I've got an idea," Miles responded sarcastically. "How about somebody else comes up with a plan for once? Or how about you just shut up so that I can think and we can get them back faster?"

"Wouldn't any plan be better than doing nothing?" Aaron argued.

"So then what do you suggest we do?" Miles snapped at him.

"Let's at least guess a direction and follow it," Rachel insisted. "We can't just sit here doing nothing all day. We at least know some directions that we know no one saw them in. So, if we don't have any other ideas, then we go from there and guess."

Miles moved to grab his gun as he heard a faint sound coming from within the trees as he quietly responded, "Or we just interrogate whoever the hell is lurking around here."

* * *

Bass felt relief wash over him when he could see a wagon through the trees. He just hoped that it was their wagon and he wasn't walking them right up to the fourth captor.

He pushed through the trees a little further, only to find a gun pointed at him.

"I already got shot once this week. Can we not make that twice?" Bass asked in an exasperated tone.

Miles began to lower his weapon, then he took a second to take in the sight of the blood dripping and sliding down his friend's arm before he quickly stepped forward to take Charlie from him.

As Miles gently set his niece down on the back of the wagon, Rachel instantly rushed over to inspect Charlie's bruises and try to see what was wrong with her.

Bass couldn't believe how relieved he was that they were back with Rachel again.

"So, what? Did you guys just sit here waiting for us to come back this whole time?" Bass questioned. "You didn't stop to think something might be wrong?"

Miles shot him a glare for that.

"I'm fine," Charlie insisted, for what felt like the millionth time that day, as Rachel looked her over. "I'm not going to die from an injured ankle. His shoulder's worse. He ripped his stitches open hours ago."

"Is it infected?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know. He won't let me look at it anymore," Charlie responded in an irritated tone.

She was the one who'd had to stitch him up the first time, and yet he was too stubborn to even let her look at what condition his wound was in.

Rachel walked over and pushed up the sleeve of Bass's bloody and shredded shirt to get a look at his wound.

"Well, it's not infected," she commented. "At least not yet."

She went back to the wagon and grabbed a needle and some thread out of her bag and a bottle of whiskey out of Miles'.

Charlie watched as her mother stitched Bass up before she let anyone near her injury.

Trying to remove the boot from her swollen ankle proved to be a less than simple task and more than a little painful. Miles could see how much it was bothering her, so he held out the whiskey bottle to her in offering.

She grabbed it and took a long swig before handing it back to him as her boot finally slid off.

Her whole foot and ankle were swollen and purple looking.

"And you thought you were going to walk all the way back here on that," Bass muttered under his breath.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A huge thanks goes out to RevolutionReader, ambrown1022, LemonSupreme, Wolf9lucky, JM2788, Dee809, and driver picks the music for reviewing last chapter! :)  
**


	13. Chapter 13

Charlie had to settle on having a splint to hold her ankle in place until they got back to Willoughby. At least they had a wagon though, instead of her having to be carried.

She slept on the wagon for the most part to try to avoid having to move her ankle, except for when it was really necessary.

* * *

When they got back to Willoughby, Miles grabbed Charlie up off of the wagon and carried her into the safe-house to see Gene. Miles was hoping that Gene would be able to get to some more plaster to make her a cast.

Aaron followed right behind the pair, but Rachel stayed back for a moment. She knew that her daughter was in good hands and she had something that she needed to say to Monroe.

"When I found out that there was something going on between you and Charlie, I wanted to kill you," she told him.

"I was wondering how long you were going to be able to hold off before giving me the stay away from Charlie or I'll kill you speech," Bass responded. "I was expecting it to be a lot sooner and involve you pointing a gun at me. Or is that part still coming?"

Rachel let out a sigh before admitting, "I still don't like you. And I wish Charlie had picked almost anyone else. But, as much as it physically pains me to say this, you aren't the worst she could do."

A smirk formed on his lips then, which only annoyed her more and made the conversation more difficult.

"You're at least a small step above the Patriots," she added, hoping that the comment wouldn't go to his head too much. "I thought you were going to get Charlie killed, and I'm not saying that you might not still, but you take care of her. You took a bullet for her and carried her back with your stitches torn open. So, thank you."

She knew that he hadn't done it for her, but she still found herself in the unusual position of feeling grateful towards Monroe. She still didn't like the idea of him being with her daughter, but she had a newfound level of tolerance towards the idea, at least for the time being.

That didn't make the conversation any less uncomfortable for her though, so she turned to head inside and check on her daughter before he had the chance to respond.

Bass liked it better that way anyways, since he didn't know what to say and having a civilized conversation with Rachel, of all people, felt unnatural to him.

* * *

When he went inside, he found Charlie looking very unimpressed as she asked her grandfather, "What do you mean I can't walk on it for six weeks? I can't just sit here being useless for that long. I'll lose my mind."

"You broke your ankle, Charlie," Gene pointed out. "I'm not a miracle worker. I can't just heal your bone overnight."

She did not look very happy with that answer as Gene turned to walk back out of the room.

"You got shot and you're allowed to fight," she complained as she turned to look over at Bass. "I didn't even lose a drop of blood and I'm out for over a month."

"I'm not the one with a broken bone," Bass pointed out as he walked over to sit down on the arm of the couch next to where she was sitting with her injured leg up.

"Miles broke his hand and didn't even take a break," Charlie argued.

"He could still walk," he countered.

"I don't like being useless," she insisted.

"So you're out of commission for a few weeks. You're right. You'll never be useful again," Bass told her sarcastically. "We should put you down like a horse, shouldn't we?"

She glared at him for that.

"You're not funny," she told him.

"My point is you're not useless."

"I feel useless," she argued.

"Well, if it helps, I don't think your mom is planning on killing me in my sleep any time soon," Bass told her.

"What makes you think that?" She asked in a doubtful tone.

"She gave me what I was expecting to be an 'if you don't stay away from Charlie, I'll kill you' speech," he responded. "But it ended up turning into her saying that you could do worse."

Charlie was surprised by that. She could tell that Miles had been trying to get her mother to be okay with the idea and she had wanted her mom to at least give the idea a chance or put up with it, but she hadn't actually been expecting Rachel to say anything about it that wasn't completely negative.

"I guess I could do a _little_ worse," she agreed playfully.

"You're right, you could have ended up with someone with a useless leg," he taunted with a smug smirk.

"Shut up."

_The End_

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Another huge thanks goes out to RevolutionReader, driver picks the music, MelBelle033, LemonSupreme, and JM2788 for reviewing last chapter! :)  
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